Microsoft PowerPoint

How to Create PowerPoint Presentations from Excel Files with M365 Copilot

Chris Menard

29 Aug 2025 — 4 min read

Microsoft 365 Copilot can now create PowerPoint presentations directly from Excel files. Instead of manually building slides from spreadsheet data, you point Copilot at your Excel file and it generates a complete presentation with charts, tables, and organized sections — all in under a minute.

This feature requires a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. Here's how it works using a real Microsoft financial statement as the source data.

Setting Up Your Excel File

The example uses a Microsoft Corporation financial statement Excel file with multiple worksheets — Balance Sheets, Cash Flows, Comprehensive Income, Segment Revenue, Quarterly Income Statements, and more. The file contains real financial data from fiscal years 2021 and 2022.

Excel spreadsheet showing Microsoft Corporation Balance Sheets with assets, cash equivalents, and investments for December 2021 and June 2021 — The source Excel file contains Microsoft financial statements across multiple worksheets

The key requirement: your Excel file needs to be saved to OneDrive or SharePoint. Copilot references cloud-stored files, so local-only files won't work.

Creating the Presentation with Copilot

Open PowerPoint and click Create with Copilot from the Home screen (or open a blank presentation and click the Copilot button). In the Copilot dialog, click Reference files and select your Excel file from OneDrive. You can add a description of what you want, or simply let Copilot analyze the data and decide.

PowerPoint Create a presentation with Copilot dialog showing Reference files button and Oasis design template with Change design option — Click Reference files to attach your Excel file, then choose a design template

You can also choose a presentation design before generating. Copilot shows a default template (like Oasis) with a Change design button if you prefer a different look.

Reviewing the Generated Slides

Copilot generates a full presentation — in this case, 18 slides organized into logical sections: Financial Performance Overview, Income Statement and Revenue Analysis, Comprehensive Income and Cash Flow Insights, and Balance Sheet and Asset Overview.

PowerPoint slide sorter view showing 18 AI-generated slides organized in sections with charts, tables, and financial analysis from Excel data — Copilot generated 18 slides organized into sections with charts and financial analysis

Each slide pulls data directly from the Excel file. Copilot creates bar charts for revenue trends, tables for detailed breakdowns, and text summaries that interpret the numbers. A "Keep it" button appears at the bottom — click it to finalize the presentation.

PowerPoint slide showing Segment Revenue Performance with bar charts for quarterly revenue data and fiscal year 2021 breakdown — Copilot creates slides with charts and data analysis pulled directly from the Excel source

Customizing After Generation

The generated presentation is fully editable. You can:

Delete slides you don't need
Rearrange sections by dragging slides
Edit text, chart labels, and formatting
Use Copilot to translate slides into other languages
Add your own slides alongside the AI-generated ones

Each slide includes a footer noting the source file reference, so you can trace where the data came from.

Tips for Better Results

Clean data helps — Well-structured Excel tables with clear headers produce better slides
Multiple worksheets work — Copilot reads across tabs and creates sections for each
Be specific if needed — You can type a prompt like "Focus on revenue trends" alongside the file reference
Review AI content — The "AI-generated content may be incorrect" warning means you should verify numbers against your source
Save to OneDrive first — Files must be cloud-accessible for Copilot to reference them